


YJ Prompt Week March 2020

by Skycrystal23



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, M/M, Past Abuse, Past Relationship(s), Prompt Fic, Unrequited Crush, everyone being cute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:15:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23267581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skycrystal23/pseuds/Skycrystal23
Summary: A weeks worth of prompts with little ficlets to go with! Just something to get me through being quarantined at home during the virus outbreak in Canada!
Relationships: Artemis Crock/Wally West, Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson, Bart Allen/Eduardo Dorado Jr., Dick Grayson/Zatanna Zatara, Kaldur'ahm/Wyynde, Tim Drake/Cassie Sandsmark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 38





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt 1: "You are more family then my own blood," 
> 
> Artemis and her longing for a proper family, she just doesn't realize that she already has one among her friends.

It was weird, this team. She was still getting used to the dynamics of it and working alongside her meta-human friends. Artemis wasn’t particularly gifted, she didn’t have superspeed or alien powers. All she did was shoot arrows and maybe throw the occasional well-aimed kick or punch. But she was no Boy Wonder, no Zatanna, no Kid Flash. Her entire life was built on evil, sometimes it was hard to fight the good fight. Everyone was always against them, a constant battle not to die when their covert cover is broken. She didn’t know why Batman continued to send them out on covert missions when they almost always ended in near disaster.

Today was one of those days around the cave. The mission ended in more cuts and bruises then necessary. A lot of the Leaguers were there to greet them upon return when they heard what happened. Her friends’ mentors, their family were there to make sure they were alright. Artemis was standing off to the side holding her aching arm. It was by no means broken but it was bruised to all hell. She took a rather rough fall. In hindsight she would have been a lot worse if Wally hadn’t caught her.

There were a few Shadows in the area they were scoping out. The only person who knew the details of the mission was Robin. This was something he and the brooding bat were working on and required a certain bit of information. Heavily guarded information and as all things typically went, they ended up being caught. She was on a balcony fighting one of the Shadows. They got too close and shoved her off the side of the railing. It was like time stopped; her scream caught in the back of her throat. Then there was a pair of arms and a smug grin seconds before they went tumbling into a wall.

Nonetheless, she would be fine. Artemis would always be fine and she knew that. Yet that didn’t stop the touch of jealousy when she saw her friends with their family. She wished she had something like that. Oliver wasn’t there, he wasn’t able to make it. The blonde didn’t depend on him for everything; after all, she wasn’t his niece. When she was younger, she remembered the time she scraped her knee on the pavement. She cried and cried and instead of kisses and calming words she was simply told to cut it out and quit the crying.

Now don’t get her wrong, she loved her mother more than anything. But they didn’t have a normal mother-daughter relationship. Hell, her father was a criminal, her mother an ex-convict, and her sister was a part of the same international group that just attacked them an hour ago. Her eyes wandered over to Robin. He had a few cuts and bruises but he was the person to escape the least scathed besides Kaldur and Conner. The Boy Wonder was chatting to Batman with a grin plastered to his face, Bats on the other hand had the same stoic expression as always. Her gaze then flickered over to the excitable redhead. Wally was babbling about something to Flash, something about the mission and having to go to school tomorrow.

Her staring must have been too obvious because Wally looked to her, catching her gaze, and grinned like an idiot. There was a gust of wind, a red blur and suddenly he was standing in front of her.

“Seeing something you like?” he asked wiggling his eyebrows.

Artemis rolled her eyes, “In your dreams West,”

She stole one last glance at the group and their mentors behind him and then walked away. Tonight, she’d stay at the cave, get ready early and zeta back to Gotham in time for class. As she walked down the hallway towards her room, she heard the Leaguers codes echo from the zeta-tube. Wally and Robin’s codes were announced as well – everyone else lived in the cave.

A few years go by.

It was graduation day. When her eyes opened her stomach was immediately filled with butterflies. There were many things in her life that she didn’t think would happen. Graduating from high school was one of those things. Artemis would be the first person in her family to do so. There was a sense of pride to that, she enjoyed that fact. It was something she could rub in Jade’s face if she ever saw her again. The only person that knew it was her graduation day was her mother and Wally. Her eyes drifted to the Alice in Wonderland poster on her wall. It was losing its colour and the corners were starting to peel with age.

The giddiness wouldn’t leave her stomach as she got ready. The hair curler was a gift from M’gann for her birthday last year. If her life was the same before she joined the team, she probably wouldn’t have most of the things she did. The Crock family wasn’t too concerned with exquisite makeup or dresses that made her feel like a princess. God, if Jade heard her say something like that, she would never let Artemis live it down. Over time the girls on the team introduced her to things she didn’t think she would ever like. Her mother was waiting for her in the living room when she left her room.

Paula wheeled up to her daughter and smiled with tears in her eyes. She took Artemis’ hands in hers and gave them a squeeze.

“I am so proud of you Artemis,” Paula said with a smile.

“Thank mom,”

Compliments like this were strange. Maybe it was because Artemis was never complimented in her home – her father made sure of that when he was still here. Her father lived by the laws of tough love. Although his idea of tough love was far rougher than most. Her mother couldn’t come to her graduation. Paula didn’t want to embarrass her. Artemis didn’t understand how her mother could think that but she stopped trying to convince her otherwise a long time ago.

The ceremony was nerve-wracking. There was such a large sea of people, mostly smiling parents with cameras. She scanned the crowd to see if her father or sister even made the effort to even show up in the distance. The butterflies in her stomach were replaced by utter disappointment. Once again there was that longing as she stared out at the crowd filled with families. Everyone had at least someone, she had no one. When her name was called to the stage everyone clapped. She knew it didn’t mean anything, no one knew her in that crowd of people.

“That’s my girlfriend!”

Her face flushed red, pausing in front of the principal of the school. Some more people whistled and she looked to the crowd, astonished to see her friends cheering her on. Wally gave her a thumbs up and the goofiest smile, he snapped a few pictures of her accepting her diploma. The disappointment disappeared and once again her stomach and her chest swelled with butterflies. She took her seat again and looked down, face flushed red and a stupid smile that wouldn’t leave her face.

“That was cute, your boyfriend,” the girl next to her said.

“He’s an idiot,” Artemis said, shaking her head with a smile still on her face.

After their caps were tossed into the air everyone began to disperse, finding their families and friends. Wally found her in the crowd, running to her and picking her up. She was spun around a few times before he reluctantly put her down, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

“Why didn’t you tell us it was your graduation?” M’gann asked whilst giving her a hug.

“I didn’t think it was important,”

“What do you mean? It’s everything!” M’gann yelled.

Her friends were bombarding her with compliments and their congratulations. Artemis didn’t know what to do with all of this. They all ushered her back to the WatchTower where a bunch of the League was waiting. M’gann and Zatanna had planned a little graduation party for her. Oliver and Dinah got her a card and a necklace with her name on it as a present. There was cake and even Batman of all people congratulated her. After much cake and laughter, they had all settled in one of the numerous common areas.

Artemis was sitting on one of the couches with Wally’s head in her lap, he kept making silly faces at her. Everyone was having a good time. Somehow, they got to the topic of family and once again her heart sunk.

“Was any of your family there?” M’gann asked, her voice quiet.

“No, didn’t expect them to be,”

“I’m sorry,” the Martian apologized.

“Don’t be, they’re never there,”

A silence fell upon the room. Wally sat up and turned around on the couch, draping his arm around her shoulders. The speedster knew all about her family life and the struggles of being a Crock. Most of her holiday’s were spent at the cave or the WatchTower but recently she had been spending them with Wally and his family. It was nice...having somewhere warm and jolly to go during the holidays. Her friends were more like her family than her father or sister was. They cared for her in a way that her blood related relatives could never. She smiled at her group of friends who looked now rather glum.

“You are more family than my own blood, all of you,” she said with a smile.

And it was true.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 2: "Why did you do that?" with Bart and Eduardo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little Bartuardo/Zetaflash for you people, I still don't know what people are calling their ship.

Warms hands gently touched his back. Fingers traced a dozen scars that marred the youngest speedster’s skin. All of these were there from the future, well past future. Bart didn’t know what to call that timeline anymore. Sometimes if he stared at himself in the mirror long enough, he could see the violence playing behind him. The Reach scientists that did such terrible things. Normally with his meta-human abilities he could heal faster than any normal person. But the alien scientists liked experimenting with their captured meta-humans, used inhibitor collars to bypass a person’s abilities.

Eduardo was sitting beside him on his bed. He almost forgot he was there if Ed hadn’t stopped the soothing tracing. The condo was still, no one else was awake except for the two of them. Bart had another nightmare. They were happening more frequently and left him paralyzed with fear. Today’s latest mission had them fighting a guy who eerily reminded Bart of Black Beetle. In his mind he knew the Reach were gone but just because they were gone didn’t mean they no longer scared him.

There was just silence, dead air between the two of them. Bart couldn’t even speak as images of the nightmare and his own past flashed through his mind. He used to talk about these things with Jaime, even if it was the smallest bits of information. That stopped happening. In fact, he saw less and less of his beloved best friend. Jaime started dating Traci and in the beginning they all used to hangout together. But over time he felt that his presence was more of an annoyance than anything. At one point in time Bart even thought – no he knew he liked Jaime more than a friend would.

But Jaime would never like him that way. He would never look at Bart and see the whole world in his eyes. When Eduardo came around everything changed. The two always hung out with one another and he was surprisingly easy to talk to. They always knew there was something more between them. Eduardo acted in ways around Bart that Jaime never would. All of the accidental touches, longing looks, innocent flirting, and even the sometimes overreaction when one of them was hurt. Even now, Eduardo sitting so close tracing the scars on his back with a featherlight touch was something Jaime never did.

“Are you alright?” Ed asked, voice quiet.

His voice brought Bart back from the depths of his memories. Some of his reddish hair was still matted to forehead, green eyes hollow as he looked at Ed. He wrapped his arms around himself and looked down. The memories alone made him feel sick to his stomach. It was bad at night. During the day he was able to keep himself busy, be around all sorts of people. But at night it was just himself and the darkness.

“Why did you do that?” Bart whispered.

“Do what?”

“Come here? You always come,” his voice was quieter.

Eduardo was always here when Bart had a nightmare. It was like he just knew when it was happening. There was that flash of golden light that was so bright it would wake him from his terrible sleep. Ed wrapped an arm around him, pulling the speedster into his side. There was a scar on his side, long enough that is partially stretched across his stomach. Ed’s finger lingered on the edge of it, gently running over the raised line of skin.

“It was a food run, someone got trapped and I went back to help. Black Beetle was there...he uh, killed them and then slashed me in the side. It’s the day they captured me, put a collar around my neck,” Bart explained, slightly spacy.

The arm around him tightened, his side squeezed ever so slightly. Bart leaned into him. It was nice having someone to hold him, he felt less alone. Not a lot of people knew one-hundred-percent what the future was like. Artemis knew the most about it. After Wally died, they got closer and talked a lot. The archer was strong and smart, especially juggling her life and the craziness of it.

“How are you so happy all the time?” Eduardo asked.

“Dude, it’s easy when I have everyone around, especially you,”

There was a touch of red to his face. Luckily it was dark enough that Ed couldn’t see it otherwise Bart would be way more embarrassed. It was quiet and for a moment Bart thought he stepped across the invisible line. This line that was drawn between the two of them. Now don’t get the speedster wrong, he really liked Eduardo. The two of them flirted back and forth all the time. But a part of him was too scared to go past the flirting. That would mean that what the two of them had was real, and sometimes real was scary. Ed said something in Spanish, Bart made a mental note to study up on the language. Half the time he had no idea what Ed or Jaime were saying.

“What?” he asked.

“Sorry, I uh, I just think you’re great,”

“I’m great?” Bart asked, a smug smile on his face.

“Shut up you know what I’m trying to say,”

“Do I?” Bart’s smile drew wider.

What he didn’t expect was the sudden kiss pressed to his lips. It was all too quick and left him confused. For a second Bart thought he had dreamt the entire thing. His face was hot, burning like a boiling kettle. Eduardo moved away from him, removing the arm he had wrapped around Bart. There was a flash of panic in the other teen’s eyes.

“Sorry I shouldn’t have -”

“- no! Don’t apologize! That was – you’re fine!”

There was that familiar hazy yellow glow that was starting to form around Eduardo. The speedster was quick to grab the teens hand to stop him from leaving.

“I like you,” he sputtered out.

“Good, because I’m taking you out tomorrow,” Eduardo said, a slight stutter to his voice.

“Crash,”

A kiss was pressed to his forehead and then there was that same flash of golden light that he always saw. The night seemed a lot less dark when he went back to sleep. After all, he had a ray of sunshine to be looking forward to tomorrow.


End file.
